The Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), which procures milk from its members across the State, has seen a dip in collection of around14% from the peak season last year. Milk procurement, which had hit a peak of 72.84 lakh kg daily in July last year, has fallen to 62 lakh kg daily this month.
Despite the drop, KMF’s yearly average for procurement is still on the rise. It had on average procured 64.88 lakh kg in 2015-2016, while in 2016-2017 it was 65.5 lakh kg.
According to officials, the drop in milk procurement has been “on expected lines”. With the heat intensifying across the State and fodder shortage becoming a serious issue, milk production has come down and so has KMF’s procurement.
The federation had seen a dip of 16.6% in 2016. While the peak procurement reached 72.3 lakh kg a day in June 2015, in March 2016 it dropped to 60 lakh kg.
“Though milk procurement has declined, KMF is in a comfortable position to meet the demand,” a senior KMF officer said. The federation sells nearly 2 lakh litres of milk in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai, besides supplying milk to federations in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. “We are providing 6-7 lakh litres for Ksheera Bhagya also,” he said.
At a time when agricultural activities have been severely affected by drought, the official said, milk production has become an important source of livelihood in rural areas. “Farmers are taking dairy farming seriously as payments by KMF are on time.”
